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139 201 203 205 207^»°2Q3 MARKET STREET, CORNER JACKSON, 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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Joseph Beifel^d s Go. 







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Entered according to Act of Coneress, in tile year 1S89. by 

JOSEPH BEIFELD & CO., 

Ill tin: Office of ilic Librarian of Congress, at Washington. D. C. 



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document, 
facUire of 



CHHPTER I. 

A Problem in Metal. 

^MMEDL'ATELY after the great Chicago fire of 1871, and before the 

X country had fully awakened to a realization of the awful calamity that 

"; had befallen the great Metropolis of the West, it was 

>-. flooded with small bell-shaped charms which it was 

claimed were made from the metal of the great Court 

House Bell. The charms were sold at first at $3.50 

each, and though the intrinsic value could not possibly 

have exceeded half a cent, thousands upon thousands 

were sold. Each purchaser was presented with a handsomely engraved 

setting forth the facts (?) and guaranteeing that the metal used in the manu- 

the charm was obtained from the old Court House Hell. After awhile the; 




price was reduced to two dollars, one dollar, a quarter, and, before many weeks were 
passed, they were hawked on the street corners b)- fakirs at a dime, and still each 
purchaser was supplied with a guarantee, soiled and crumpled by the none too clean 
fingers of the vender. So plentiful did they become that, from cur to pointer, from 
ki-oodle to greyhound, ever\- dog in the land soon had one attached to his neck. A 
well-known mathematician of this cit)- has devoted some of his leisure hours to this 
problem, and has figured out that if e\ery charm sold under the guarantee was genuine, 
there must have been five bells hanging" in the Court House tower, each one as large 
as that known to have been there. Of course the authenticity of the guarantee can- 
not be doubted, as it was elegantly executed and printed on fine parchment paper, 
with a large seal, so that we are forced to the conclusion that there must have been 
four other b(;lls, the e.xistence of which was unknown except to the manufacturer of 
the charms. 









CHAPTER II. 



I1I5T0R1CAL. 



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^ E smile at the credulity of the public in allowing itself to be hoodwinked 

by such transparent devices as that related in the foregoing chapter, but 

we do not stop to think how, day l:)y day, 

we are imposed upon in divers ways by 

equally shallow dodges. Histor)- repeats 

itself, and the metallic paradox of '71 is 

today being re-enacted in countless forms. 

A year ago the name of Walker' was unknown to the great mass 

of the American people, except in connection with a certain eccentric 
female of uncertain age, whose only title to distinction rests upon the fact that she 
has discarded the ordinary costume of her sex, and' persists in appearing in ill-fitting 




'i^ 



male attire. To the patrons ol dime museums this ireak is known as Dr. Mary Walker. 
Something' less than a year ago, however, the name sprang into prominence in connec- 
tion with a certain make of seal plush manufactured by a firm of that name in England. 
Although this plush had been in the market for )ears, it was, by reason of certain 
defects in its composition, which we shall hereafter speak of, comparatively unknown 
and but little used by the cloak manufacturers of this country, and by the general 
retail trade not at all. During the closing months of 1888, however, a fortunate, or 
rather unfortunate, conjunction of circumstances brought this plush prominently before 
the trade. To correctly understand and appreciate the circumstances which contributed 
to this result, it will be necessary to review briefly the history of seal plushes in their 
relation to the cloak industry. It is now about eight years since seal plushes were 
first employed in the manufacture of ladies' cloaks. The writer remembers distinctly 
the first piece brought to his notice ; it was a beautiful specimen of the fabric, all silk, 
high, compact pile, and closely resembling seal. The price was very high — about 
$15.00 per yard, if our memory serves us — and the first sacques made from same were 
sold at wholesale tor $65.00, and were worth it. bVom the start the new material met 



with favor, and cheaper grades began to appear, but several years elapsed beiore a decent 
phish sacquc was wholesaled under $40.00. As with everything else, prices continued 
to steadily decline from season to season under the pressure of competition, and it was 
not long before the plush manufacturer realized that, unless the fabric could be pro- 
duced at a less figure, his occupation, like Othello's, would be gone. Up to this time 
no complaint had ever been made against the wearing qualities of an)- of the plushes in 
the market, but the iron hand of competition forced the manufacturer to acquire the art 
of producing the fabric cheap but without materially affecting its beauty and sightliness; 
this was the problem with which he was confronted, and with the inevitable result. 
Thus, as each succeeding season found the price of plush garments cheaper than 
before, so did the quality deteriorate in equal ratio. The same state of affairs which 
is brought about in all departments of trade ani^l industry by the same causes produced 
this result. Consumers expected to obtain for $20.00 what had formerly cost $60.00, 
and were unwilling to sacrifice any portion of the beauty on the altar of durability. 
They wanted both, but at a price fixed by themselves, and which was wholly inadequate 
to defray the cost of production. Beauty they could obtain, but at the expense of 



durability. Durability they could secure if thc\- were willing to forego beauty, but a 
combination of both at the prevailing prices was impossible. A price sufficient to 
enable a union of the two they would not hear of So serious did this become that 
many merchants boycotted plushes entirely and discontinued handling them, but the 
demand increased as steadily as the prices decreased, and the tide could not be stemmed. 

Pl.USll HAD EVIDENTLY COME TO ST.\V. 

The element of durability the Walker |)lush possessed ; beauty it did not have. 
The manufacturers of this jjlush interwove with the silk an admixture of mohair in such 
a manner as to give durabilit)', but destroyetl the handsome appearance which is the 
chief charm of plush. It gave to the fabric a certain dust)' and muddy cast which 
always militated against its success with the consumer. For years we were unremitting 
in our efforts to introduce the cloth, but, despite our strenuous endeavors, we met 
with little success. The ladies were our strongest opposition. If we succeeded in 
impressing upon the merchant the wear-resisting qualities of the plush and in inducing 
him to place it in his line, his competitor, who confined himself to the handsome, albeit 



less durable makes, did the business of die town in the cloak line, and the Walker 
plushes hung neglected on tlK^ rack. With few exceptions, this is the history of our 
experience with these goods. 

Season after season we lost money in our attempt to place the Walker fabrics, 
and became discouraged. We were met on every side with the same old cry, "What 
good will it do us if the garments will wear well, as long as our customers refuse to 
buy them ? The\- listen patiently to our story, and then go and Iniy the others from 
our neighbors." Numbers of our customers returned them to us on account of this 
appearance of dust, which they imagined to be a defect. To illustrate: we made last 
year a ^24.00 sacque of the Lister make, of which we sokl an immense number, so 
many, in fact, that we exhausted our supply of plush before the end of the season. 
I laving in stock a large number of Walker plush saccpies, of about the same general 
style, that had been made up to sell at $28.00, we offered to substitute them for the 
$24.00 grade, but few of our customers were willing to accept them, despite the fact that 
we descanted so earnestly on their wearing qualities. Some we sent out as substitutes 
on a|-iproval, and almost invariabl\- the\- were returned — the ladies declining to accept 



them in lieu of tlie other. However, towards the close of last season, by judicious 
advertisements of the manufacturers and a few cloak houses (ourselves among the 
number), the attention of the trade was forcibly directed to these plushes, and many 
of the country merchants, having experienced considerable trouble with inferior grades 
of other plush, took hold of them. In this manner the Walker plush(^s attained a 
certain po|)ularity. 






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CHHPTER III. 



A Probleh m PLa5hE5 







~^Pl^HE Walker plushes having hi this manner become known to a large 



jlRf number of merchants b)- name, without a corresponding- knowletlge of 
|k their appearance or characteristics, unscrupulous and 
dishonest people applied the name to almost anything 
in the shape of material that bore the slightest resem- 
blance to plush, and the old court house bell dodge 
was thus repeated. It is an open secret in cloak 
circles that the Walker Mills in Huddersfield, England, 
have not sufficient capacity to produce one piece of 
plush for every twent)' that are sold throughout the countr)- as i/s production. Some- 
one has said of the North American Indian that he ac(|uires all the vices, but none of 





the virlues, of the An^io-Saxon, and t)t these so-called Walker plushc-s it can similarly 
be said that they possess all the defects, but nont; of the merits of the genuine. Not one 
of tlie million and odd [)urchasers of those metal charms coukl prove that they were 
not in reality a chip of the old bell, nor can any of the purchasers of the Walker (?) 
plushes know to a certainty that they ever saw Huddersfield. Walker & Sons sell no 
plushes to cloak houses elirect, all of their productions sold in this country being 
handled by New York commission merchants, so that cloak manufacturers themselves 
can never assert positively that they have the genuine article. 






GiC 












CHHPTER liZ. 



PLa5H 5TATI5TK5 



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x-o 



'"| i^x -■ - , \L cannot repress a smile at the popular impression wliich a certain 
Eastern cloak house has endeavored to create by means of absurd 
statements and florid advertisements, namely: that 
, 'X the Walker plushes are the best, indeed the only 
J good, plushes in the market. The Walker firm, as 
compared to some other plush manufacturers, is a 
very small concern, and lamentable indeed would be 
the condition of things if this claim were true, as [jB 
we doubt very much whether Walker & Sons are 
able to turn out one piece of seal plush out of five hundred that 
are used in this coimtr)'. To further show the utter absurdity of these claims, we 





wisli to say that wc sulci, cliiriiiL; tin- \(jar i8S8, about sevenlcen thousa-iid plush gar- 
inciits, of which perhaps one-twentieth were oi the Walker make. Out ol these seventeen 
thousand we have received, up to this date, complaints against not over eighty gar- 
ments, hi other words, more dian one hundred and ninety-nine out of every two 
hundred sold gave satisfaction. The others, we may add, were made satisfactory. 

We wish to say, further, that the supposition that an admixture of mohair with 
the silk is alt that is necessary to insure durability is a popular error. It is the 
density and closeness of the pile that gives this property. Combination plushes, if 
loosely woven, have v(;ry poor wear-resisting qualities. Mr. Joseph Beifeld has made 
the subject of plu.shes the stutly of years, and we cannot be charged with egotism when 
we state that he has the reputation among manufacturers ot being one of the best 
judg(;s — as he is one of the heaviest buyers — in the countr\', and it is his opinion, 
Ijased upon the closest research and years of e.xperience, during which period he has 
observed and analyzed the nature and characterisdcs ol all kinds ot plush, that an all- 
silk seal plush, when properly made, is fully ec^ual, and often superior, to the best 
grades of combination. The secret of making good plum putlding consists largely in 



If. 



putting in a sufficient quantity of good plums. The secret of making good silk plush 
is' in putting in enough good silk. One cannot make a good oyster stew by using six 
oysters when a dozen are necessary, nor is it possible to make a good piece of seal 
plush by using one pound of silk where two are required. Stripped of all technical 
and high-llown language, this is the truth in a nutshell. 

All students of textile fabrics, and, indeed, all well-posted dry goods merchants, 
know that nothing is more durable than good silk. It is only tht; cheap, flimsy silk 
that brings the article into disrepute. It is the admixture of mohair that produces in 
the Walker combination plushes that muddy and dusty appearance which is so strongly 
objected to, and which is the chief fault urged against them. Walker & Sons have 
thus far been unable to overcome this great defect, but other manufacturers have been 
more successful. "The world do move," is a favorite expression of " I'rudder 
Gardner," and while Walker & Sons have been quietly resting on the laurels which 
they fancied they had won. other manufacturers have been bestirring themselves, and 
have succeeded in producing plushes that combine with durability, which the Walker 
plushes have. l)caut\' and sightliness, which the Walker plushes have 7ioi, so that the 



merchants who last year handled the Walker plushes, ond this year refrain from doing- 
so, arc in vcr)- much the pcxsition of the man who, on being asked wh)- he had 
expressed a different opinion today from that of yesterday, gave as his answer, " I am 
twenty-four hours older." Progress and improvement are the ruling spirits of the age. 
Prominent among these wide-awake makers of plush are Sir Titus Salt, Bart., 
-Sons & Co.. of the Saltaire Mills, Bradford, England. This firm is known throusfhout 
th(' mercantile world, and its name is the synonym for financial strength and commer- 
cial probity. They liavc produced a plush possessing the qualities above named, and 
despite the impudent and bombastic statements of a certain New York corporation 
engaged in the manufacture of cloaks, we desire to make it known that we are the 
owners of a very large quantity of these plushes, at prices as low as have been secured 
by any house in America. W^e challenge any firm in the United States to prove to 
the contrary, and we hereby agree to donate the sum of One Thousand Dollars 
($1,000.00) to the charitable organizations of this city if we fail to mak(! " good this 
claim, provided the other part\- will agree to the same in the event of their failure to 
substantiate tlu^ir assertion. 



Another concern that has distancetl Walker in the race for supremacy is the 
well-known firm of Lister & Co., of Bradford, England. We give here the full text ol 
a recent communication received from them, which will explain itself. 



(sKK M-;.\-r I'Aci';.) 



, " 77;<? Hard Wear." 
LISTER & CO. Ltd. " The Exhibilion i88gr 

\ " The Patetii Elastic htdestructible." 



THE HARD WEAR ■^■>w^vt>'vi>' |>-V o^ ^i/W'^^^ iAvy'v'O VvO^''^.. 0/v\s-v\a/;;>/ O/'vux^l' O'VvX^- 
THE EXHIBITION iS8g vi/ o^ WvvO^i/v-'i^^^ ^^o*Wv<i/^ u^v't^v yo^vU'i'vXo^vlu 

T^/Y^ PATENT ELASTIC INDESTRUCTIBLE ^^'yJiX^ o-\ o.^ o^vt/V^U 

AS SUPERIOR v;>- O^WUj VVv K/\\\/ WvO^'^JfVl't'. 

LISTER & CO. Ltd. 



Lister cv Co. are the oldest antl largest prothicers of seal plush on tlu: lace of 
the earth. Their wealth is almost boundless, and their reputation for sterling integrity 
beyond the breath of suspicion. .An announcement of this kind, coming from a firm 
of such standing, cannot fail to carry conviction. When we assert that Lister & Co. 
produce twenty-five pieces of seal plush to one of Josejjh Walker & Sons, we under- 
estimate, rather than overstate the facts. We are heavy purchasers of these plushes at 
e.Ktremely low prices, and we know them to ho. far superior in many and equal in ail 
respects to the highest grades of Walker plushes. We ha\e also contracted for a large 
([uantity of the plushes of Messrs. T. Priestly & Co., Bradford, Englantl. This firm is 
not, perhaps, as large as the two above mentioned, but it is universally conceded that 
they are amcMig the most reliable and expert makers of seal plush, and to the 
excellent qualities ot the goods' produced by them this year our own experience 
enables us to testify. 



CHAPTER y.. 
bECLARATlOIM OF PRmClPLE5. 



SZffif^ 




— I K do not claim that we are the only cloak house 
I'i:-: haiidlinq; these plushes, nor do we wish to be 
understood as saying that these are the only good 
■-- plushes in the market. There arc a number of 
other first-class and reliable makers whose produc- 
tions we handle, and which we can conscientiously 
recommend. Tlie world is too large for any one 
man to have a monopoh' of everything that is good. 
We have this year confined our purchases to such 
plushes as we knew to be relial)le. We have avoided all that have 
given any trouble in the past, and shall adhere to the use of 





those which have proven their durability in lormer seasons, adopting only such new 
fabrics as give positive assurance, by their nature and composition, of their abihty to 
resist the ravages of hard wear. Of course, despite the utmost care and circumspec- 
tion, no matter whose phishes are used (Walker's not excepted), now and then a 
garment will succumb to usage before its time, and in such cases we have always stood 
by our customers, and shall continue to do so in future. We have never, to our 
knowledge, lost a single customer on this account, and every reasonable claim has 
always been satisfactorily adjusted. This policy and these methods have made us the 
-leading cloak house in the West, and will continue to be employed by us as heretofore. 
In view of the fact that the corporation before referred to has announced, among 
other misstatements, in language more conspicuous for its bombast than its elegance 
of diction or correctness of grammar, that it was the only house that was able to 
secure the Walker plushes at last year's prices, we desire, before concluding, to make 
public the following extract from a letter received by us from a firm that handles only 
the Walker plushes, under date of March 19, 1889: "'•' * '■' * '•' / wi7/ sell fi/ly or one 
hwidred pieces to you at last year s order price (not less than fifty pieces), terms on all 



taken pi-ior to yiily /, ninety days: after yuly /, sixty days. ''' '''' * '■■'■ Geo. T. Knight." 

The following was our reply: "Chicago, March 22, /SSg. George T. Knight, Esq., 

Neiu York. Dear Sir: The clotJi referred to in yours of the igth inst. does not 
interest 7cs." 

We declined to purchase these Walker plushes at last \-ear's prices, despite the 
fact that the}- had already been advanced, simply because we own iirtter and 
HANDSOMER GOODS FOR LESS MON'EV. \\' c do uot pay for name. A good cigar is good, 
even if it is not wrapped in tin-foil and branded with a high-sounding name. We 
know a plush when we see it, whether it is made by Walker, [umper or Runner, and 
we are willing to stake our reputation on our judgment. 




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